Forskaen and Tel'aran'rhiod in Dragon Reborn

[Jearom Gaidin]

I'm wondering if anyone has any theories on why all the people in Illian and Tear in "The Dragon Reborn" all look so hopeless and downtrodden? Obviously we know they are all having similar dreams (as well as in Andor as noted by Basel Gill) so the forsaken (Rahvin, Sammael, and Be'lal) must be projecting from TAR into the dreams of the respective peoples of each land but do we ever get an explanation of what is going on there? Loial notes that something is wrong in Tear and Perrin and Failed note something similar earlier when they are traveling through Illian.

[wotfan4472]

Channellers that have the power levels that the Forsaken do, and do not shield their dreams, will force those dreams onto the people around them. They will dream of whatever those figures fear, or long for. They will even act out those channellers very deepest emotions without realising it. 

Those dreams will also occur every night until either they shield their dreams or are killed. 

Loial made a note of it, because Ogier are extremely sensitive to the mood of locations. They also know precisely what is causing that experience.

Remember Loial's report in Illian that a group of stonemasons left after one night when Sammael appeared there.

This action was caused because the Ogier knew a Forsaken was in the area, since they would have knowledge passed down about the effects of being near one from the Age Of Legends. Information the Aes Sedai did not have.

Faile, meanwhile, made note of Illian, because she had been there recently, and noticed a vast change in the people.

[Jearom Gaidin]

12 hours ago, wotfan4472 said:

Channellers that have the power levels that the Forsaken do, and do not shield their dreams, will force those dreams onto the people around them. They will dream of whatever those figures fear, or long for. They will even act out those channellers very deepest emotions without realising it. 

Those dreams will also occur every night until either they shield their dreams or are killed. 

Loial made a note of it, because Ogier are extremely sensitive to the mood of locations. They also know precisely what is causing that experience.

Remember Loial's report in Illian that a group of stonemasons left after one night when Sammael appeared there.

This action was caused because the Ogier knew a Forsaken was in the area, since they would have knowledge passed down about the effects of being near one from the Age Of Legends. Information the Aes Sedai did not have.

Faile, meanwhile, made note of Illian, because she had been there recently, and noticed a vast change in the people.

 

Excellent response, thanks, that is more or less what I was thinking too. Obviously Rand learns more about it from Asmodean later on in Shadow Rising to shield his dreams etc...

 

My question is why would it behoove the Forsaken to not shield their dreams in "Dragon Reborn". Wouldn't that be a clear tell of where they were? It is only the powerful male forsaken (Rahvin, Sammael, and Be'lal) who don't bother to shield their dreams as they have taken over the rule of Andor, Illian and Tear respectively...is it male hubris that they don't care who knows where they are? Obviously they aren't afraid of any current Aes Sedai but the chosen are well known to plot against one another so not really sure what benefits they would gain by not shielding their dreams. I would imagine the other women forsaken are shielding their dreams at this point once they are released into the world...

[wotfan4472]

The reason some of the Forsaken do not shield their dreams is because some do not care about being exposed.

Be'lal and Sammael both did not care about this.

All the others did care about being exposed too soon before revealing themselves, as far as some are prepared to.

Moghedien and Graendal in particular would never do this, for any reason. Moghedien because she is paranoid about exposing herself, while Graendal will not do this, because she likes being in full control of situations.

[Sabio]

Be'lal intentionally didn't shield his dreams though so he could draw Rand to Tear.  Also as you saw how people in Illian were like, it's sort of to Samm's advantage to start sapping people of hope and making them depressed.  Alot of it was he didn't care but it also did serve a purpose because of it's effects on the population.  I think was a bit of foreshadowing since this is sort of what the DO want's, people to give up hope to lose their will to fight.